Stine Writing and Miniatures

W3 Prompt #168: Wea’ve Written Weekly: Bella’s Flashback

W3 Prompt #168: Wea’ve Written Weekly
https://skepticskaddish.com/2025/07/16/w3-prompt-168-weave-written-weekly/

Ben’s prompt guidelines

There once was a prompt named “W3”
Calling writers of the world to see
How, mechanics gets hazy
When mechanisms go crazy
As this prompt shifts ‘gears’, suddenly!

This week, I invite you to step into a world of old-timey wonders—where cogs spin, gears click, and imagination runs on steam.

Picture a player piano humming to life…
A snow globe that sings and twirls…
A zeppelin drifting lazily across the sky…
Or the steady chug of a locomotive on the tracks.

We’re diving into vintage mechanical marvels: music boxes, paddle steamers, tractor engines, grandfather clocks, fob watches, steamships, penny-farthings—you name it. You can focus on one or weave together a chorus of whirring inventions in your verse.

Your challenge:
Craft a poem inspired by these bygone mechanisms—let your mind whirl and tick with poetic possibility. And here’s the twist: be sure to include the word magniloquent somewhere in your poem!

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Bella’s Flashback

Bella sat upon the seat, banana shaped and red
She rode along a winding path through clock cog roads instead
The path wound back and forth and then she pushed the cuckoo out
She rode her bike and watched her watch at each hour she’d shout
But someone dear forgot to wind the clock where she was at
So she ditched her bike and held the wires of a gentlemanly dressed cat
Pull this string and arms go up, its magniloquent voice so loud
the dancing cat was her main act to please the growing crowd
When evening came to say goodnight she put the cat to bed
And kneeling down she said her prayers, hands folded, bowing head
When she was done she kissed her mom and plugged in her night light
And took her little glow worm friend and sleep she did not fight

©2025 CBialczak

Banana bikes, cuckoo clocks, puppet marionettes, saying prayers, night lights, and a glow worm to snuggle.

28 comments

  3. Christine, “she ditched her bike and held the wires of a gentlemanly dressed cat” feels so delightfully surreal to me—like stepping into a child’s dream mid-scene. I love the quirky charm woven through Bella’s world.

    ~David

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  4. Christine, your rhyme works like clockwork winding us back down memory lane to the mechanical ‘gear’ we tinkered by dawn to dusk – our imagination at play; thank you.

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